Saturday, September 27, 2008

Off to the Doctor...

Jacob is at the doctor with Craig right now and I am at home waiting for my friend Mary to arrive (for the second weekend in a row!) so we can head off to Geneseo for a little reunion event this afternoon. Jacob's had his cough for over a month now, and I'm pretty sure it's an allergy thing. Though they say environmental allergies don't usually show up in babies this small, I've read some first-hand accounts of when they do, and even though those people were told it was other things but couldn't test until their babies were older, it turned out that their symptoms were indeed allergies. Jacob's got it coming from both sides of the gene pool, though we'll just be happy if he avoids Craig's asthma. The cough still doesn't seem to bother him a ton, but it still can't be fun waking up coughing or having a coughing fit in the middle of his feeding. I always feel better when he gets through a coughing fit and immediately starts smiling again.

I had called the doctor yesterday to ask a question about the use of saline nasal drops (though I deduced later last night that his nose isn't the problem...it doesn't run, and for all the congestion he seems to have, it doesn't seem like a lot makes it to the nose) as well as get their thoughts on a new product I saw. There's now a gel that you put around your nasal area to repel allergens. Apparently allergen ions are charged one way, and this stuff is charged the opposite, so when the allergens come close to your nose, the ions repel and less allergens make it into your system...so you end up with fewer symptoms. It seems a little crazy, but a reputable company came out with it and it seems plausible. It's non-medicated so it is sold as safe for all ages, but the doctor didn't recommend it anyway. Hmmm. But they did suggest we bring him in again to get checked out. Another $20 co-pay and probably very little that they can do. I would have gone with them, but this morning we've been running late--from waking up late (Can't complain! We were up at 6am thanks to a coughing fit and subsequent feeding, but Jacob went back to sleep no problem until about 10! I woke up at 9:30, which was about half an hour later than I imagined I would) to a mid-feeding poop that needed attending to. Mary should be here any minute now and I didn't want her coming to an empty house. I also had to get things packed up for our trip to Geneseo today, so I figured it just made sense to stay home even though I really wanted to go to hear what the doctor had to say.

The trip to Geneseo should be a lot of fun, regardless of how the weather holds up. A lot of people I haven't seen in ages will be there, along with their kids. A lot of them will be the folks I've already seen around Facebook, so it will be neat to see everyone in person. And it's always nice to go down to Geneseo and relive college a bit, not to mention enjoy Mama Mia's Pizza and Aunt Cookie's Subs, which I never fully appreciated in college because I was cheap and ate off my meal plan 99% of the time. We've more than made up for it since, eating at one place or another whenever we happen to visit. It will be Jacob's first trip there, so it should be a fun day. If the weather is decent, we should have some time to take a walk around the campus before the picnic, and it will be interesting to see if I can get his stroller up the hills!